ohhhhhhhhhh heck yes! Did you make this for me? I feel like this was made for me... I will pretend this was made for me. Always looking forward to your videos!
We've recently started using a fleixble 3d printable rubber at work and have had success using it to cast silicone parts for product design students - I'll be messing with it over the next few weeks to see how else we can use it in teaching sculpture, and resin moulding for fine parts if on my list
@@RobertTolone Ive had reasonable success with simple elegoo water washable transparent green, its got a bit of flex in it, not glass hard like the grey. I have also been printing molds and trying to case silicone parts. I found that the resin seems to prevent the silicon from curing, I had to get some tin cure, which was not as tough as needed.
Be aware, that silicone, especially the platinum based one, doesn't cure well around photoresin parts. It's called the inhibitor effect. The workaround is to use cheaper tin based silicone to make a pre-production die, cast a epoxy part in it, then use it as the original for the production dies.
I've been experimenting with this exact same thing recently, trying to make custom silicone o-rings for a project. I settled on printing the mold with no registration keys, just divots to help me locate them later. This way I can sand the mold faces flat on a granite surface plate to ensure they come together perfectly for minimal flash. Then I drill out the divots to .25" and add two metal pins for registration. I've also found that smooth-on mold max 30 doesn't have any inhibition problems when used directly against syratech blu resin, which is also pretty tough and not very brittle.
@@PeppoMusic Well, I've only made a few, I'm still tweaking the mould design, but I don't know if the mould will ever wear out. If I'm pulling silicone parts out of a resin mould, it should last indefinitely, shouldn't it? I guess we'll see😄
I just finished my own 3D printed resin casting mold test as well only 1 hour ago! The 3D model of the mold I made does not close as a flat surface but more of a sinusoidal shape. My first attempt was very unsatisfactory because the two halves did not fit together well. I tested out the resin I was using using a validation test and set the exposure time accordingly. The two halves then fitted perfectly. I tested it out with sanitary silicone, no injecting, just some dishwasher to prevent the silicone from sticking and then pressed the two halves together. Worked incredibly well. When casting silicone you don't have to worry about the shape locking the mold when it hardens. I also recommend using a clear resin for the molds because you can check to see if the casting material filled it up properly. Thank you for your videos, Mr. Tolone. They helped me out a lot.
Geesh....your approach always makes so much sense. I've been printing and molding for a while but tilt the mold so air escapes. You tilted the cavity = brilliant!
@@RobertTolone Different printers/resins might give different results, I have a better fit when the registration keys are downsized by .1mm diameter. Your videos have helped me a lot. Thanks for that. For anyone watching (Robert already knows I'm sure), it's easier to make a silicone mold from the prints than to cast in a resin print. Usually, Tin cure works well. I haven't had any luck using platinum cure silicones.
@@RobertTolone You can use 0 Tolerance but at least activate Anti-Aliasing in Chitubox ( If u use it ). The AA will take a few pixels to blur them, so they will leave a tiny gap. I personally use 0.030mm of tolerance. Great Video btw.
All these measurements depend on the materials used. Some resins shrink considerably as they cure. Though this property is unpopular in 3D printing or casting.
@@asailijhijr In addition, they shrink differently depending on the geometry of the print. For example, a pin may shrink and become thinner and vice versa - the print around the hole may shrink and the hole will become larger. It depends on the wall thickness, the geometry and even the curvature of the surface.
That's a tough material combo to mold: rigid on rigid. You were smart to use a base layer of wax on top of a spray release. Most folks miss this part. You really need a good wax base (2-3 coats is ideal) to ensure you don't have reactivity between the UV cured resin and the polyurethane. The spray release then helps get it out the rest of the way. We've done a couple videos on 3D printed molds on our YT channel, as it's a frequent request/question, so nice work on showing the success and pitfalls!
I have to say I too prefer the casting resin over 3D resin printing. The results are night and day. however, there are things you can't cast, unless you are a true artist with nerves of steel, sometimes you have no choice to 3D resin print objects no casting would accomplish. Great video, thank you.
When a friend's making resin moulds, he prints the positive on a resin printer, then casts a silicon mould around it. It's soft enough to make part extraction a lot easier, but stiff enough to keep its shape.
I do this as well. I Have some resin mold jackets that i've made for things I commonly cast and printed mold to cast silicone molds to do resin casts. If that isn't too convoluted :P
What made me smile was that a gentleman from my own generation was using a 3D printer in the first place. I thought I was the only one. What made me stand up and CHEER was that a gentleman from my own generation was ALSO using Blender. You, sir, are a hero to all us boomers. (P.S. ... I do all of my modelling in Fusion 360, and instead of casting resin I do my casting in silver.)
Thoroughly enjoyed this episode! Dealing with similar things now in my unrelenting desire to make plastic figures. :D As you experienced, resin 3D prints are *not* accurate. I switched from Chitubox to Lychee and that somehow made a difference, but with injection molds I still generally will have to sand a while before the mold halves fit together. SUPER impressed with the figure design! It's like you've been doing 3D/computer design for decades!
As with FDM printers you can do some adjustments of settings to make it very close to having a prefect accuracy. My resin printer gives me close to 0.0X accuracy but i also spend a lot of time getting my settings just right. it of course also comes down to the resin that you use, it can shrink, expand or even deform when curing. I had no problems making 2 half's of a mold that merged perfectly to form thin aluminum from a can.
Uh, actually, Crafsman I HAVE been doing computer design since Windows 3.1 I first started using 3d CAD for doing StarWars spaceships, etc for Kid’s meal toys back in the late 90’s. Most of my sculpting has been by hand, but still, I feel like I should be a lot more advanced as a 3-D modeler than I am! I have switched entirely to Blender and it is my goal to become professionally proficient with it this year. And the experience of printing my characters in house has just begun. Over the years I always sent the models out to service bureaus for printing. Back in the 90’s it would cost $1,200 to print a small character! This little $200 Elegoo printer makes prints far superior to those old prints! We always had to re-cast the 3-D print into sculpting wax to clean up all the layer lines. Will definitely look in to Lychee and hope that my printing skills come up to par as well.
@Robert Tolone WHAAAAAT?!? I must have missed the episode where you talked about your legendary past! :D Blender is the one to learn, by the way. I was hung up on my 3D software of choice (started using trueSpace 2 in 1998) and have downloaded Blender every couple of years with the intention of learning it. I've also recently taken some ACTION towards that with my latest download of Blender and some inspiration from Ian Hubert's videos. You're continually impressing me, sir.
@@TheCrafsMan I found Blender hard to learn because I have been using Rhino NURBS modeling forever. I couldn’t get the workflow and muscle memory out of my head. Polygons are so different than NURBS surfaces! But I am blown away by all the things that Blender can do and I’m getting better at it every day. Now that I have the basics of the Blender-to-3D printing process in hand it will open up a huge new world of possibilities.
Hey Robert I make 3D printed injection molds for fishing lures over on my channel and found the best way to align and hold them is to use nuts and bolts, I have a few videos on my channel outlining how I do it. Great videos as always, I have learned so much from your videos!
Omg, I've been meaning to try this. I wanted to make something and then make a mold of it, I just haven't gotten round to trying it yet. This is one of those reasons to get a resin printer, unfortunately I've only got an FDM printer. I'm so glad someone else tried this. :O
Sweet! The ability to make a real fast mold with ver partial infill (making it really fragile) with which a completely solid infill resin of a different and tougher plastic is a real accomplishment. I can see using this to make really intricate really tough and hard plastic gears. I would still use pins and make them the right size. This was a real success.
It was nice to see a bit of you working in blender. I spend a lot of time in it myself for both my casting project and my animations. I never knew there was a 'bool tool' addon. I always just used the boolean modifier in the same spot you find the subdivision surface modifier.
Cool! I just had this recommended to me while I am currently printing a mold for resin lol. Glad there is hope! I am using it to make a house key so hopefully the details won't be ruined if I don't have a pressure/vacuum chamber.
at my previous job we 3d printed mold for injection molding, and we managed to make very complex plastic parts runs of about 25 units per mold, which was really neat. It really accelerated the prototyping process for us
@@mertturan2986 about 25units per mold, depends on the plastic you're injecting though. Some require higher pressure, or tougher to release from the mold. There's a lot to factor in, it's a lot of trial and error
pour one out for the broken mold! Great experiment, especially accounting for no undercuts or places for it to get stuck. Zero forgiveness compared to silicone seems like!
@@RobertTolone those draft angles are always a challenge too. I might start designing my components with chamfers so that I'll never have to worry about air entrapment and sharp corners causing the mold to get stuck
@@myopinion69420 hmmm 🤔 one of my thoughts was to make the mould with the part joined to it using a union (boolean) operation and cast the negative if it's a one piece mould
''the'' most important fact! ''draft angles''!! I hope any1 new/just starting on molds, see's this video!! it's educational!! they teach this in drafting school.. this can be learned in a couple of hours!! congratulations!! don't forget 2 coat U'r mold, or wax!!
That's not a toy...it's a work of art. Unique and custom from start to finish. You need to start a "Creations Gallery." Thanks for the cool and inspiring piece RT!
The roughness in your prints is most likely from the tiny layers that resin printers use, if you look at a part 3d printed from a traditional fdm 3d printer, you will notice a lot of stepping and layers, resin printers do the the same thing, just on a smaller scale, it's always a good idea to sand 3d prints.
i had to comment early before I even finished the video. I am so frigging thankful for your insight and your videos. You explain shop tools and terms so easily, I would have never seen myself casting, using PU rubber, dying, and actually owning a pressure pot not even 2 months ago. So THANK YOU! I'm also really glad you're breaking down the 'pull' concept, Its one of my biggest issues when I model. I don't know much about casting, so Im always running into issues when I finally get to the cast/pull phase. Like YESTERDAY I finally finished a big mold for a toy I'm making with big pointy teeth, but you explaining the 'pull' direction is 100% why those darn teeth get stuck when I pull out my cast. So thanks again!!! I will try to improve my orientations.... and now I continue the video!
I know I'm way past late to the party, but some suggestions. 1. To make your molds split easier, and a tiny chamfer on one of the sides. 2. You can use air to get things out of molds. If you are particularly clever you can even add ports to force air in. Hope this helps!
I imagine it would be possible to make the seam line in almost any shape, it might make it even easier to fit them together, for the final part to be removed and it would also look cool
You can include tiny air channels into the mold that can then be used with compressed air to just blow the parts out. Just remember to plug up the holes with some beeswax before casting.
That or chill the project, mold and all, for about 5 to 10 minutes in the ice box. The material difference between your mold and print medium should cause them to thermally expand at different rates. Easy pop out then.
Im super interested in trying this since getting molds to do what I want are adding up, 6$ here 9$ there 4$ over there, it adds up fast and Ive yet to find something Im happy with at a price I can live with, so printing something even if its single use sounds really REALLY handy, thank you for covering this subject
I 3D print all my molds, they even have deep indents, holes, etc. They are also very oddly shaped due to the designs. Try printing the inverse of what you did, with the toy robot sticking out (not in) of the 3d mold part. You then fill the two parts with silicone, when you put the two silicone pieces together you have perfect mold, and you can create new molds quickly from those parts. They basically become the masters you can use forever. Saved me hundreds of hours of work. By using this method you have have very detailed objects and decide exactly there the mold lines and flashing will appear.
@@thesouluniversal Yes, I have a resin printer and use Smooth-On products for molds and casting. There are two types of silicone for molds, tin-based and platinum based. For resin you should use Tin, and the other stuff won't cure right unless you add a bunch of chemicals.
@@badvermin Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I heard that platinum cured silicone is better quality, lasts longer and captures more detail so have doubts about using tin-based, however it does seem to be the simplest solution...
Some mad lad in the blacksmithing community is 3d printing shaped "cookie cutters" and filling them with different powdered steels to make canister mosaic damascus! He's got pictures in the Blacksmith subreddit if you are interested. He did maple leafs.
you can even injection mold with 3d printed resin tooling, its a little tricky but when you have the process down its a great way to rapidly test out tooling geometry before machining final tooling in aluminum or steel
At Doc Holliday Molds we used to pop stuff out of molds by puffing compressed air from a nozzle, where mold and object met. If ANY air could get in there, it dislodged the casting just fine.
When you're doing this you need to reduce the pins on the print to be 2-5 microns smaller than the matched insert holes. Alternately, you could have just reamed out the pin receptacles and not had to worry about sanding the mold face (and also still be left with pins). A common trick is to use shelf holder insert pins, because then you can just create dowel cutouts on both faces at slightly different diameter. One to receive and the other to hold. Steel pins, so no fuss. You'll also want to leave yourself a ridge depression along the outer edge of the mold face for inserting a parting knife in future prints.
You could try some flexible resin for the mold like the F69 from Resione. F69 is rubber-like when its warm, but you can get it rather rigid by cooling it down. The rubber-like consistence should make removing the molds easier.
I actually did that about a week ago. The flexible resin bonded completely with the 3D resin and was impossible to pull. But it definitely works with plastisol (the rubbery stuff fishing lures are made of).
You have a great voice and your content starts IMMEDIATELY. I really appreciate that you waste no time. You earned a sub from me. Thanks for the content!
Try printing molds with TPU flexible filament & 10% infill. It should make separation much easier. Also always make your pin holes 2-6 mm larger than your pins to compensate for expansion.
I just underwent this experiment myself, made an almost identical mold type and also had the same issue of it not closing flush, only I don’t think the problem was the registration marks, rather the print was warped possibly due to being underexposed, I think i need to dial in the resin exposure settings in the slicer to get the perfect fit. So I’m going back to testing some resin calibration prints to fix this.
Yes, you can, but there are a few caveats. One of them is getting the mould to not leak if you are using FPM printer - i didnt have SLA then. I used TPU. Then I used candle wax to seal and fill the cavities in the mould. TPU bends, I pulled off a rather complicated epoxy pour with it :)
Candle wax is a good idea. Awhile back I used filament-printed molds for silicone casting over a period of several months. The viscosity of the resin was a big factor. Sylgard 184 would leak out regardless. I eventually was able to get good results by using a cheap off-brand resin and wrapping the outside of the molds with electrical tape.
Awesome experiment, my favorite thing about this is how time effective this process is. I do have one question : do you have to reapply beeswax every time you go to use the molds? I've only ever used Ease Release, this is a method of mold release is new to me. For me it doesn't seem to matter how long a resin print cures for, how many coats of ease release I use or layers of clear coat spray paint I do; I can't get a resin print to cure with the preferred platinum cure silicone. Sure I could use tin cure silicone, but with the fragility of tin cure silicone, if that breaks, it costs more time and energy to make new one. ESPECIALLY if it's a two part mold. So even if I can get one clean cast out of a resin printed mold and it breaks, I can then make a platinum cure mold and be happy.
Robert. You are a real class act. I mean that with utmost sincerity. I can't wait to dig in to your channel. I've been curious about this sort of thing for a long time. 👍Best!
Coming from a time where all of my casting moulds were hand built, using dental amalgams, plasters, resins, etc, using my printer to build moulds has opened an entirely new world of possibilities. Forget 2 part moulds - with a 3d printer you can break a mould into multiple sections with varying angles and make pulls that were impossible to accomplish, with any mould medium.
There are additives that you can mix with the resin (usually 1:3 or 1:4 by volume) that give the print some flexibility which allows you to break the microscopic hold the parts have on the mold even on drafted parts. It is also possible (depending on design) to add ejectors to the mold that would need plugged or to add chamfers to the outside mold seams to ease mechanical separation. Also also, again depending on the design, it is about just as easy to print the molds in multiple parts beyond 2 so that it is easier to get hold of the part and separate everything limiting the surface area any particular mold section has. I used all of these techniques to print a 5 part mold (with 6 steel registration pins) to cast game pieces that could not have draft. They had detailed engraving on top and bottom and then they had sharp, square edges to be able to stand on any of their three edges. I added chamfers dividing the layers of the sandwich so to speak that would wedge the top and bottom sections away from the ring of middle sections, then I printed double pronged clips that I could put on my vice jaws to easily break away the large upper and lowers before easily peeling off the middle pieces. Since all seams are at the edges of the rather angular piece the flashing is easily cleaned and fixed. This was repeated for three patterns of engraving as well as adapted to make a squish mold for polymer clay and spray foam.
@@Aikano9 no good, they become toooo flexible. You just need something that allows the mix be less brittle while still keeping dimensional tolerances. If you look at the instructions of those flexible resins they recommend different mix ratios on them. Edit: Depending on what is being molded of course. There could be reasons for more flex in some situations but I've not found a situation in which I wanted to use the full soft resin. PS: your comment was really condescending. I recommended adding flexible resin to hard resin to make the hard resin more flexible and you come back with 'hey you can buy flexible resin' like dude I literally just said that.
@@Aikano9 The existence and use of flexible resins, the main point of the comment, was literally the first sentence, so even that excuse is lame. To others, my apologies, I did not explicitly state that these products were for sale, since I did not think that detail was in any way needed amongst thinking adults, but since at least one person did not understand please allow me to be clear: one can buy these, readily, and often at reasonable cost from reputable dealers. No need to steal them or excrete them or synthesize them yourself. If you needed this information then I wish you the best of luck and try not to look up because it might be raining.
A good idea for the pieces to come out easily would be to sand and polish the molds first, because the matte finish on 3d printed parts comes from the micro stair steppping from the different layers, so that may increase the surface area a lot and the resin will stick a lot more
@@GaryMcKinnonUFO Yeah, that should work too. I spray regular gloss spray, but you still ned to buff it. Haven't tried with polyurethane or 2K finishes, but for some parts it looks very good after just sanding and polishing, which sometimes can be even faster because you don't need to wait for the paint to dry
You can also make a mold of a mold, the positive model with a built in box and sprues, and pour silicone into the two halves for a precise negative mold.
Robert sei un grande! (Hope you can understand these simple Italian words as your last name let guess you can ) Why do you cast resin into a 3D printed resin instead of using it directly? Do you think cast resin is more resistant and durable than UV polymerized resin? Thanks and congrats for your great work!
No idea how TH-cam suggested this to me, but man this is awesome! I tried this with some siraya high temp stuff trying to cast pewter. Didn't quite work, but this makes me consider the wax for release.
thank u so much, i've being spending days to understand how to do this 3D other elaborated videos were so complicated, simple, clear, right to the point! love your video !!
Man I got quite a bit out of this, and bravo to the drill skills. lol. Did this in the negative to make silicone molds. Cpl points and idea..on resin registration keys, I found 0.02 clearance on both sides fixes that..take off 0.02 on the key and increase the hole by 0.02. Idees, maybe do a negative/mold cast of some to make a silicone or polyurethane mold and last idea. Push pins on the key side. Add a removable slug, probably cast to make a silicone plug about the size of a wooden dowel. Might make removing better and given the results this time, probably not a lot of clean up. Great work, thanks!
I want to experiment using 3D parts as a mold and the outside surface of the part at the same time, printing FDM in vase mode like and filling it with resin in order to get a strong part. Thanks for sharing your experiment, I really appreciate watching it.
I have often wondered whether instead of 3d printing masters and then molding them in silicone, you could make the mold blanks in 3d and then directly silicone mold from those 3d printed "molds" to remove the traditional silicone molding process.
You would need one more extra step in there. If you 3-D print a mold it is a negative. If you cast it in silicone it is a positive. From that you would have to cast the negative silicone mold.
Awesome! Glad to see you are working with the 3D printer. I’ve been thinking about printing a mold and this will prove very helpful. And I’m working on my own 3D robot as well. Love your PullBot design. Hope all is well with you. See you next Friday!
Print the mold in an FDM printer using TPU. It's strong and repeatably flexible like a shoes sole. I've printed functional sandals out of it. TPU also naturally smooths on print so you wouldn't get the layer lines like normal PLA. Resin printers are always going to be on the brittle side, but I have seen some flexible resins that I haven't tried yet.
@@lifeviasoul Depends on what you're filling the mold with. The surface is like glass with the right settings so in most cases you wouldn't need a coating unless it's something reactive with TPU chemically. I'm sure other brands would work but I used Polymaker TPU95, from their site: "PolyFlex TPU95 is a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) based filament specifically engineered to work on most desktop 3D printers. It has a shore hardness of 95A and can stretch more than 3 times its original length." The TPU90 may be a better bet depending on how much you have to deform the molds to get out the object. They also have a newer TPU95-HF meant for manufacturing.
@@lifeviasoul The defaults are good if you go with polymaker. It's almost PLA easy. Just increase temp or slow down speed to increase glass like finish, but bridging/retracting will be impacted. I use a CR10 and it doesn't struggle at all.
Hey, great work! I stumbled across wanting to learn more about casting with the possibility of 3d printing. Very informative and love your passion and enthusiasm.
Amazing work Robert, I started modeling and figuring this all out a couple years ago. Awesome to see you evolve your processes using a 3d printer and sharing your experiences !
Just stumbled apon your channel. Ive noticed your attention to detail and enjoyed your process but one thing id add to improve the process a lil bit is when ya drill holes or have holes it always looks nicer and fits better with a CHAMFER on the hole... im machinst and to see burs or to have them is a pet pieve of mine. Since its plastic not much of a worry but any type of metal and expect to be putting on some bandages throughout the day!
Draft release angles make a huge difference, I made production parts using a form 3 printer and resin casting with mine, apply similar principles for this as you do for injection mould designs.
Another interesting video. A couple of weeks ago I did something similar but created moulds to mould silicone rubber buttons for a nelsonic game watch. The main issue I had there was I had to paint the mould because the light cure resin prevents platinum cure silicone from curing.
@@RobertTolone yeah. So I found out. Just a light paint coat was enough though. Any idea whether there are good waxes that you can use to apply a thin film to the surface of a resin 3D print without pooling in corners?
I have to say i am immensly impressed by this Video and yourself sir. As soon as i heard that you modelled it up yourself in blender i subbed! Its amazing and an Inspiration. My Blender experience was very humbling as it is not very easy to understand i think. Keep it up
I have struggled to learn Blender but I’m finally getting comfortable with the modeling part. Animation, procedurals, nodes, Uvs, etc I haven’t even started on yet.
I was gonna try this but I would have to clean the mould if Im using an fdm printer. And as for the mould not locking all the way, you would need to do the other side of the registration keys scaled up .2mm so it locks properly. Instead of keys, you could use screw inserts and tighten it with a wing nut.
I was his student when he designed that head. I bought it from him. It was a pre-production test casting and the ears didn’t cast correctly so it is flawed. John didn’t want to sell it to me but I insisted. It’s been in my studio ever since.
I just baked a print the other day and got that wood grain pattern as well. The interesting thing was I only got it on one of 5 identical prints. And I think the only difference was I may have post cured that one for less time than the other 4.
The alignment pins ran into a common problem with 3D printing, the surface printed is slightly proud or shy of ideal. So shapes that in theory fit exactly are tight or loose. If the project is worth the effort the model can be dialed in for an exact fit.
I recently start to do it too. I use FDM 3d printer and tried printing the mold with it, which I had a terrible time removing the resin from the mould. After the faliure I made the object using the fdm and made a silicone mold for it, and then casted in resin, which works much better.
FDM just doesn't have the fidelity--the layer lines are too large, which leave marks that need sanded, and it's kinda porous, so the resin seeps in and you get...exactly what you got. Dunno if waxing the hell out of it and maybe tumbling the mold with pins to "sand" it would help...
@@gpweaver I use some primer to cover the model and sand it afterwards. And yes, I can see the lines on my models sometimes. I did not mean print a mould using FDM 3D printer though. I have tried that before, and the resins just soak into the holes between the lines, and some fast resins melts the PLA I'm using. What I mean was use FDM to create the replicate of the acutal cast object, then make a silicone mould for it, then cast it with epoxy resin.
ohhhhhhhhhh heck yes! Did you make this for me? I feel like this was made for me... I will pretend this was made for me. Always looking forward to your videos!
Nobody cares about you. Go back to your cave.
Love to see you printing molds on your channel Uncle Jessy!
We've recently started using a fleixble 3d printable rubber at work and have had success using it to cast silicone parts for product design students - I'll be messing with it over the next few weeks to see how else we can use it in teaching sculpture, and resin moulding for fine parts if on my list
Flexible printed molds are on the agenda. Should be fun!
Actually, this would be much easier and safer too
What brand do you use? I use water washable, but this would be incredible for simpler molds I wanted to make
@@RobertTolone Ive had reasonable success with simple elegoo water washable transparent green, its got a bit of flex in it, not glass hard like the grey. I have also been printing molds and trying to case silicone parts. I found that the resin seems to prevent the silicon from curing, I had to get some tin cure, which was not as tough as needed.
@@NicoleHam we're using a highly flexible resin rubber from formlabs.
What you could do is print up a version of your mould with the positive of your object, and make a silicone mold from it. And cast that.
💯💪🏼🔥
Literally what I'm looking to do, and why I'm here.
I guess the whole point of this video was to see if this step can be avoided.
I was thinking the exact same thing, Good call! 👍🏻👍🏻
Be aware, that silicone, especially the platinum based one, doesn't cure well around photoresin parts. It's called the inhibitor effect. The workaround is to use cheaper tin based silicone to make a pre-production die, cast a epoxy part in it, then use it as the original for the production dies.
Very nice! Blender is amazing - it's hard to believe it's completely free and open source.
Can't tell you how much I LOVE this little robot. So cute!!
I love watching this man, he always looks genuinely happy on his lil projects
Glad to see someone my age have as much fun with this kind of hobby as I do.
Great teaching! I don’t think I’ll ever forget what PULL means in this context.
I've been experimenting with this exact same thing recently, trying to make custom silicone o-rings for a project. I settled on printing the mold with no registration keys, just divots to help me locate them later. This way I can sand the mold faces flat on a granite surface plate to ensure they come together perfectly for minimal flash. Then I drill out the divots to .25" and add two metal pins for registration. I've also found that smooth-on mold max 30 doesn't have any inhibition problems when used directly against syratech blu resin, which is also pretty tough and not very brittle.
@@PeppoMusic Well, I've only made a few, I'm still tweaking the mould design, but I don't know if the mould will ever wear out. If I'm pulling silicone parts out of a resin mould, it should last indefinitely, shouldn't it? I guess we'll see😄
I just finished my own 3D printed resin casting mold test as well only 1 hour ago! The 3D model of the mold I made does not close as a flat surface but more of a sinusoidal shape. My first attempt was very unsatisfactory because the two halves did not fit together well. I tested out the resin I was using using a validation test and set the exposure time accordingly. The two halves then fitted perfectly. I tested it out with sanitary silicone, no injecting, just some dishwasher to prevent the silicone from sticking and then pressed the two halves together. Worked incredibly well. When casting silicone you don't have to worry about the shape locking the mold when it hardens. I also recommend using a clear resin for the molds because you can check to see if the casting material filled it up properly. Thank you for your videos, Mr. Tolone. They helped me out a lot.
Great tips, thanks!
Geesh....your approach always makes so much sense. I've been printing and molding for a while but tilt the mold so air escapes. You tilted the cavity = brilliant!
Mold cavity position is super important!
@@RobertTolone Different printers/resins might give different results, I have a better fit when the registration keys are downsized by .1mm diameter. Your videos have helped me a lot. Thanks for that. For anyone watching (Robert already knows I'm sure), it's easier to make a silicone mold from the prints than to cast in a resin print. Usually, Tin cure works well. I haven't had any luck using platinum cure silicones.
0.025 or 0.05mm tolerance works like a charm with mold locking spheres. Great video as always 😃
Good to know, thanks. Zero tolerance was obviously not the way to go!
I also always use .06 to .08 mm clearance for mating parts.
@@RobertTolone You can use 0 Tolerance but at least activate Anti-Aliasing in Chitubox ( If u use it ). The AA will take a few pixels to blur them, so they will leave a tiny gap. I personally use 0.030mm of tolerance. Great Video btw.
All these measurements depend on the materials used. Some resins shrink considerably as they cure. Though this property is unpopular in 3D printing or casting.
@@asailijhijr
In addition, they shrink differently depending on the geometry of the print. For example, a pin may shrink and become thinner and vice versa - the print around the hole may shrink and the hole will become larger. It depends on the wall thickness, the geometry and even the curvature of the surface.
My friend was talking about your video yesterday, and I didn’t believe him. This is awesome, I’m going to try this too.
That's a tough material combo to mold: rigid on rigid. You were smart to use a base layer of wax on top of a spray release. Most folks miss this part. You really need a good wax base (2-3 coats is ideal) to ensure you don't have reactivity between the UV cured resin and the polyurethane. The spray release then helps get it out the rest of the way. We've done a couple videos on 3D printed molds on our YT channel, as it's a frequent request/question, so nice work on showing the success and pitfalls!
⁹9⁹o 99999999⁹99999999999999⁹9999
I’m going try this! I’ve been 3D printing the part and making a rubber cut mold from it. Which I learned from watching your amazing videos.
I have to say I too prefer the casting resin over 3D resin printing. The results are night and day. however, there are things you can't cast, unless you are a true artist with nerves of steel, sometimes you have no choice to 3D resin print objects no casting would accomplish. Great video, thank you.
When a friend's making resin moulds, he prints the positive on a resin printer, then casts a silicon mould around it. It's soft enough to make part extraction a lot easier, but stiff enough to keep its shape.
I do this as well. I Have some resin mold jackets that i've made for things I commonly cast and printed mold to cast silicone molds to do resin casts. If that isn't too convoluted :P
if the mold are empty he loses the shape, here on brazil we use "gesso" idk the translation name of this
@@victorgomes5823 they call it plaster
This used to only be possible in an industiral setting and now we are doing it at home. Pretty cool!
What made me smile was that a gentleman from my own generation was using a 3D printer in the first place. I thought I was the only one.
What made me stand up and CHEER was that a gentleman from my own generation was ALSO using Blender. You, sir, are a hero to all us boomers.
(P.S. ... I do all of my modelling in Fusion 360, and instead of casting resin I do my casting in silver.)
Do you print lost wax resins for your silver castings?
Thoroughly enjoyed this episode! Dealing with similar things now in my unrelenting desire to make plastic figures. :D
As you experienced, resin 3D prints are *not* accurate. I switched from Chitubox to Lychee and that somehow made a difference, but with injection molds I still generally will have to sand a while before the mold halves fit together. SUPER impressed with the figure design! It's like you've been doing 3D/computer design for decades!
Love you and your work Mr Crafsman. Awright. 😁😇
As with FDM printers you can do some adjustments of settings to make it very close to having a prefect accuracy.
My resin printer gives me close to 0.0X accuracy but i also spend a lot of time getting my settings just right. it of course also comes down to the resin that you use, it can shrink, expand or even deform when curing.
I had no problems making 2 half's of a mold that merged perfectly to form thin aluminum from a can.
Uh, actually, Crafsman I HAVE been doing computer design since Windows 3.1 I first started using 3d CAD for doing StarWars spaceships, etc for Kid’s meal toys back in the late 90’s. Most of my sculpting has been by hand, but still, I feel like I should be a lot more advanced as a 3-D modeler than I am! I have switched entirely to Blender and it is my goal to become professionally proficient with it this year. And the experience of printing my characters in house has just begun. Over the years I always sent the models out to service bureaus for printing. Back in the 90’s it would cost $1,200 to print a small character! This little $200 Elegoo printer makes prints far superior to those old prints! We always had to re-cast the 3-D print into sculpting wax to clean up all the layer lines. Will definitely look in to Lychee and hope that my printing skills come up to par as well.
@Robert Tolone WHAAAAAT?!? I must have missed the episode where you talked about your legendary past! :D Blender is the one to learn, by the way. I was hung up on my 3D software of choice (started using trueSpace 2 in 1998) and have downloaded Blender every couple of years with the intention of learning it. I've also recently taken some ACTION towards that with my latest download of Blender and some inspiration from Ian Hubert's videos.
You're continually impressing me, sir.
@@TheCrafsMan I found Blender hard to learn because I have been using Rhino NURBS modeling forever. I couldn’t get the workflow and muscle memory out of my head. Polygons are so different than NURBS surfaces! But I am blown away by all the things that Blender can do and I’m getting better at it every day. Now that I have the basics of the Blender-to-3D printing process in hand it will open up a huge new world of possibilities.
Hey Robert I make 3D printed injection molds for fishing lures over on my channel and found the best way to align and hold them is to use nuts and bolts, I have a few videos on my channel outlining how I do it. Great videos as always, I have learned so much from your videos!
Yup I could see myself just drilling holes in the modelling
Where can I get 3D mold files
OHHHH! THATS SMART!!!
@@AdamMclardy No need to drill, just add them to your mold halves before printing. I have a motto, drilling = failure when it comes to 3D printing. 😄
idk how you appeared on my newsfeed but this was interesting! You would be an awesome uncle to have!
Omg, I've been meaning to try this. I wanted to make something and then make a mold of it, I just haven't gotten round to trying it yet.
This is one of those reasons to get a resin printer, unfortunately I've only got an FDM printer. I'm so glad someone else tried this. :O
ive watched so many of these videos even though ive never casted a mold or intend to in the near future. cant stop. send help
There is no help for you once you cross the event horizon. You’re on a downward spiral into oblivion. Sorry.
never thought about printing molds, gotta try that out soon. Love to see the passion in the craft.
Sweet! The ability to make a real fast mold with ver partial infill (making it really fragile) with which a completely solid infill resin of a different and tougher plastic is a real accomplishment. I can see using this to make really intricate really tough and hard plastic gears. I would still use pins and make them the right size. This was a real success.
It's quicker to make a silicone mould.
It was nice to see a bit of you working in blender. I spend a lot of time in it myself for both my casting project and my animations. I never knew there was a 'bool tool' addon. I always just used the boolean modifier in the same spot you find the subdivision surface modifier.
My Blender knowledge is pretty limited. I use it almost entirely for toy prototype models.
i do this for work and modeling for molds, there are so many things to think about. this is a good video.
Cool! I just had this recommended to me while I am currently printing a mold for resin lol. Glad there is hope! I am using it to make a house key so hopefully the details won't be ruined if I don't have a pressure/vacuum chamber.
at my previous job we 3d printed mold for injection molding, and we managed to make very complex plastic parts runs of about 25 units per mold, which was really neat. It really accelerated the prototyping process for us
hello, how many times could you use 3d printed molds with injection molding? thanks :)
@@mertturan2986 about 25units per mold, depends on the plastic you're injecting though. Some require higher pressure, or tougher to release from the mold. There's a lot to factor in, it's a lot of trial and error
pour one out for the broken mold! Great experiment, especially accounting for no undercuts or places for it to get stuck. Zero forgiveness compared to silicone seems like!
Hey Brookes! Yeah, it was a fun experiment. I think it could be refined to work a lot better.
@@RobertTolone those draft angles are always a challenge too. I might start designing my components with chamfers so that I'll never have to worry about air entrapment and sharp corners causing the mold to get stuck
They have more flexible resins and I believe you can mix and match so that might be one way to make things a little better.
I actually got my resin printer to make moulds, but not like this, I actually plan to make moulds for silicon moulds for resin casting.
@@myopinion69420 hmmm 🤔 one of my thoughts was to make the mould with the part joined to it using a union (boolean) operation and cast the negative if it's a one piece mould
I didn't think of the possibility to print molds. Nice to see how you did it.
It was a first go so hopefully I’ll get better at it!
I am actually surprised not at your casting, but your 3D sculpting. Just wow!
I am primarily a sculptor. It’s funny to me that I am known as a moldmaker on TH-cam.
@@RobertTolone Well, your contents are mostly about casting, so... XD
''the'' most important fact! ''draft angles''!! I hope any1 new/just starting on molds, see's this video!! it's educational!! they teach this in drafting school.. this can be learned in a couple of hours!!
congratulations!! don't forget 2 coat U'r mold, or wax!!
That's not a toy...it's a work of art. Unique and custom from start to finish. You need to start a "Creations Gallery." Thanks for the cool and inspiring piece RT!
Thanks! I appreciate it.
The roughness in your prints is most likely from the tiny layers that resin printers use, if you look at a part 3d printed from a traditional fdm 3d printer, you will notice a lot of stepping and layers, resin printers do the the same thing, just on a smaller scale, it's always a good idea to sand 3d prints.
I like the way these molds are made. Thanks for you input and showing us.
i had to comment early before I even finished the video. I am so frigging thankful for your insight and your videos. You explain shop tools and terms so easily, I would have never seen myself casting, using PU rubber, dying, and actually owning a pressure pot not even 2 months ago. So THANK YOU!
I'm also really glad you're breaking down the 'pull' concept, Its one of my biggest issues when I model. I don't know much about casting, so Im always running into issues when I finally get to the cast/pull phase. Like YESTERDAY I finally finished a big mold for a toy I'm making with big pointy teeth, but you explaining the 'pull' direction is 100% why those darn teeth get stuck when I pull out my cast. So thanks again!!! I will try to improve my orientations.... and now I continue the video!
Glad you find my videos helpful Nicole. I wish you great success your projects!
Oh wow! I've always wanted to try home casting for my ball jointed dolls that I also print out on my 3D printer, this might be a game changer for me!
I know I'm way past late to the party, but some suggestions.
1. To make your molds split easier, and a tiny chamfer on one of the sides.
2. You can use air to get things out of molds. If you are particularly clever you can even add ports to force air in.
Hope this helps!
I imagine it would be possible to make the seam line in almost any shape, it might make it even easier to fit them together, for the final part to be removed and it would also look cool
It's so relaxing to hear Martin Sheen doing 3D modeling and printing XD, amazing work!!! thanks for sharing...
You can include tiny air channels into the mold that can then be used with compressed air to just blow the parts out. Just remember to plug up the holes with some beeswax before casting.
That or chill the project, mold and all, for about 5 to 10 minutes in the ice box. The material difference between your mold and print medium should cause them to thermally expand at different rates. Easy pop out then.
@@jacksonfondren1656 or into hot water after is is hardened inside - should work too
If you use a rubbery resin like SuperFlex you can print a rubber mold
which will make release of models much easier and even allow for minor undercuts
I'd like to see a few more of these 3d printing mold vids
Im super interested in trying this since getting molds to do what I want are adding up, 6$ here 9$ there 4$ over there, it adds up fast and Ive yet to find something Im happy with at a price I can live with, so printing something even if its single use sounds really REALLY handy, thank you for covering this subject
I 3D print all my molds, they even have deep indents, holes, etc. They are also very oddly shaped due to the designs.
Try printing the inverse of what you did, with the toy robot sticking out (not in) of the 3d mold part. You then fill the two parts with silicone, when you put the two silicone pieces together you have perfect mold, and you can create new molds quickly from those parts. They basically become the masters you can use forever. Saved me hundreds of hours of work.
By using this method you have have very detailed objects and decide exactly there the mold lines and flashing will appear.
Do you use a resin printer? I want to try this but hear that silicone wont cure against resin...
@@thesouluniversal Yes, I have a resin printer and use Smooth-On products for molds and casting. There are two types of silicone for molds, tin-based and platinum based. For resin you should use Tin, and the other stuff won't cure right unless you add a bunch of chemicals.
@@badvermin Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I heard that platinum cured silicone is better quality, lasts longer and captures more detail so have doubts about using tin-based, however it does seem to be the simplest solution...
Some mad lad in the blacksmithing community is 3d printing shaped "cookie cutters" and filling them with different powdered steels to make canister mosaic damascus! He's got pictures in the Blacksmith subreddit if you are interested. He did maple leafs.
you can even injection mold with 3d printed resin tooling, its a little tricky but when you have the process down its a great way to rapidly test out tooling geometry before machining final tooling in aluminum or steel
print your pins separate from the molds with both mold having negative for the pins, nice video!!
At Doc Holliday Molds we used to pop stuff out of molds by puffing compressed air from a nozzle, where mold and object met. If ANY air could get in there, it dislodged the casting just fine.
I am experiment with compressed air now. Should be interesting!
When you're doing this you need to reduce the pins on the print to be 2-5 microns smaller than the matched insert holes. Alternately, you could have just reamed out the pin receptacles and not had to worry about sanding the mold face (and also still be left with pins). A common trick is to use shelf holder insert pins, because then you can just create dowel cutouts on both faces at slightly different diameter. One to receive and the other to hold. Steel pins, so no fuss.
You'll also want to leave yourself a ridge depression along the outer edge of the mold face for inserting a parting knife in future prints.
good tips
You could try some flexible resin for the mold like the F69 from Resione. F69 is rubber-like when its warm, but you can get it rather rigid by cooling it down. The rubber-like consistence should make removing the molds easier.
I actually did that about a week ago. The flexible resin bonded completely with the 3D resin and was impossible to pull. But it definitely works with plastisol (the rubbery stuff fishing lures are made of).
Great experiments, Robert!
You have a great voice and your content starts IMMEDIATELY. I really appreciate that you waste no time. You earned a sub from me. Thanks for the content!
Me too, I like videos that dive right in! Thanks for subbing!
He *did come out pretty cute! ☺ Nice little resin figure guy! This looks like so much fun!
Wonderful! You just keep cranking out relevant videos relevant for my prototyping.
Try printing molds with TPU flexible filament & 10% infill. It should make separation much easier. Also always make your pin holes 2-6 mm larger than your pins to compensate for expansion.
Filament? Better flexible resin... Filament gums up the nozzle.
I just underwent this experiment myself, made an almost identical mold type and also had the same issue of it not closing flush, only I don’t think the problem was the registration marks, rather the print was warped possibly due to being underexposed, I think i need to dial in the resin exposure settings in the slicer to get the perfect fit. So I’m going back to testing some resin calibration prints to fix this.
Yes, you can, but there are a few caveats. One of them is getting the mould to not leak if you are using FPM printer - i didnt have SLA then. I used TPU. Then I used candle wax to seal and fill the cavities in the mould. TPU bends, I pulled off a rather complicated epoxy pour with it :)
Candle wax is a good idea. Awhile back I used filament-printed molds for silicone casting over a period of several months. The viscosity of the resin was a big factor. Sylgard 184 would leak out regardless. I eventually was able to get good results by using a cheap off-brand resin and wrapping the outside of the molds with electrical tape.
🔥 we use air gun to get castings from hard molds in my Uni!. Great video!
Awesome experiment, my favorite thing about this is how time effective this process is. I do have one question : do you have to reapply beeswax every time you go to use the molds? I've only ever used Ease Release, this is a method of mold release is new to me.
For me it doesn't seem to matter how long a resin print cures for, how many coats of ease release I use or layers of clear coat spray paint I do; I can't get a resin print to cure with the preferred platinum cure silicone. Sure I could use tin cure silicone, but with the fragility of tin cure silicone, if that breaks, it costs more time and energy to make new one. ESPECIALLY if it's a two part mold.
So even if I can get one clean cast out of a resin printed mold and it breaks, I can then make a platinum cure mold and be happy.
Robert. You are a real class act. I mean that with utmost sincerity. I can't wait to dig in to your channel. I've been curious about this sort of thing for a long time. 👍Best!
Coming from a time where all of my casting moulds were hand built, using dental amalgams, plasters, resins, etc, using my printer to build moulds has opened an entirely new world of possibilities. Forget 2 part moulds - with a 3d printer you can break a mould into multiple sections with varying angles and make pulls that were impossible to accomplish, with any mould medium.
There are additives that you can mix with the resin (usually 1:3 or 1:4 by volume) that give the print some flexibility which allows you to break the microscopic hold the parts have on the mold even on drafted parts. It is also possible (depending on design) to add ejectors to the mold that would need plugged or to add chamfers to the outside mold seams to ease mechanical separation. Also also, again depending on the design, it is about just as easy to print the molds in multiple parts beyond 2 so that it is easier to get hold of the part and separate everything limiting the surface area any particular mold section has. I used all of these techniques to print a 5 part mold (with 6 steel registration pins) to cast game pieces that could not have draft. They had detailed engraving on top and bottom and then they had sharp, square edges to be able to stand on any of their three edges. I added chamfers dividing the layers of the sandwich so to speak that would wedge the top and bottom sections away from the ring of middle sections, then I printed double pronged clips that I could put on my vice jaws to easily break away the large upper and lowers before easily peeling off the middle pieces. Since all seams are at the edges of the rather angular piece the flashing is easily cleaned and fixed. This was repeated for three patterns of engraving as well as adapted to make a squish mold for polymer clay and spray foam.
You can buy flexible 3d printer resin, no need to mix your own
@@Aikano9 no good, they become toooo flexible. You just need something that allows the mix be less brittle while still keeping dimensional tolerances. If you look at the instructions of those flexible resins they recommend different mix ratios on them.
Edit: Depending on what is being molded of course. There could be reasons for more flex in some situations but I've not found a situation in which I wanted to use the full soft resin.
PS: your comment was really condescending. I recommended adding flexible resin to hard resin to make the hard resin more flexible and you come back with 'hey you can buy flexible resin' like dude I literally just said that.
@@karatos I read the first sentence. Not the rest. Idk if you mentioned buying flexible resins or not
@@Aikano9 The existence and use of flexible resins, the main point of the comment, was literally the first sentence, so even that excuse is lame.
To others, my apologies, I did not explicitly state that these products were for sale, since I did not think that detail was in any way needed amongst thinking adults, but since at least one person did not understand please allow me to be clear: one can buy these, readily, and often at reasonable cost from reputable dealers. No need to steal them or excrete them or synthesize them yourself. If you needed this information then I wish you the best of luck and try not to look up because it might be raining.
I learnt more in this one video in the previous 10 I watched on the subject. Thank you for keeping it simple :D
A good idea for the pieces to come out easily would be to sand and polish the molds first, because the matte finish on 3d printed parts comes from the micro stair steppping from the different layers, so that may increase the surface area a lot and the resin will stick a lot more
Or you can spray with polyeurathane to get a smooth finish after a few coats and fill in the gaps.
@@GaryMcKinnonUFO Yeah, that should work too. I spray regular gloss spray, but you still ned to buff it. Haven't tried with polyurethane or 2K finishes, but for some parts it looks very good after just sanding and polishing, which sometimes can be even faster because you don't need to wait for the paint to dry
@@smokeduv Good point about drying time.
Smooth on has some stuff that fills the lines on 3 -D printed molds . Thanks for this video enjoyed very much .
I like watching guys like this under 100k followers they seem much more sincere
You can also make a mold of a mold, the positive model with a built in box and sprues, and pour silicone into the two halves for a precise negative mold.
Robert sei un grande!
(Hope you can understand these simple Italian words as your last name let guess you can )
Why do you cast resin into a 3D printed resin instead of using it directly?
Do you think cast resin is more resistant and durable than UV polymerized resin?
Thanks and congrats for your great work!
I did it just for a fun experiment. Always looking to try new things on the channel. Grazie mille.
No idea how TH-cam suggested this to me, but man this is awesome! I tried this with some siraya high temp stuff trying to cast pewter. Didn't quite work, but this makes me consider the wax for release.
Very cool. I always imagined making the print than making the print into a mold. But I guess you can go straight to making the mold it's self
thank u so much, i've being spending days to understand how to do this 3D other elaborated videos were so complicated, simple, clear, right to the point! love your video !!
Man I got quite a bit out of this, and bravo to the drill skills. lol. Did this in the negative to make silicone molds.
Cpl points and idea..on resin registration keys, I found 0.02 clearance on both sides fixes that..take off 0.02 on the key and increase the hole by 0.02. Idees, maybe do a negative/mold cast of some to make a silicone or polyurethane mold and last idea. Push pins on the key side. Add a removable slug, probably cast to make a silicone plug about the size of a wooden dowel. Might make removing better and given the results this time, probably not a lot of clean up.
Great work, thanks!
I want to experiment using 3D parts as a mold and the outside surface of the part at the same time, printing FDM in vase mode like and filling it with resin in order to get a strong part. Thanks for sharing your experiment, I really appreciate watching it.
I have often wondered whether instead of 3d printing masters and then molding them in silicone, you could make the mold blanks in 3d and then directly silicone mold from those 3d printed "molds" to remove the traditional silicone molding process.
You would need one more extra step in there. If you 3-D print a mold it is a negative. If you cast it in silicone it is a positive. From that you would have to cast the negative silicone mold.
Awesome! Glad to see you are working with the 3D printer. I’ve been thinking about printing a mold and this will prove very helpful. And I’m working on my own 3D robot as well. Love your PullBot design. Hope all is well with you. See you next Friday!
Just stumbled onto this video. Thank you for sharing your project.
Print the mold in an FDM printer using TPU. It's strong and repeatably flexible like a shoes sole. I've printed functional sandals out of it. TPU also naturally smooths on print so you wouldn't get the layer lines like normal PLA. Resin printers are always going to be on the brittle side, but I have seen some flexible resins that I haven't tried yet.
Do you coat the mold before casting? I just upgraded to dd to try print tpu molds.
@@lifeviasoul Depends on what you're filling the mold with. The surface is like glass with the right settings so in most cases you wouldn't need a coating unless it's something reactive with TPU chemically. I'm sure other brands would work but I used Polymaker TPU95, from their site: "PolyFlex TPU95 is a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) based filament specifically engineered to work on most desktop 3D printers. It has a shore hardness of 95A and can stretch more than 3 times its original length." The TPU90 may be a better bet depending on how much you have to deform the molds to get out the object. They also have a newer TPU95-HF meant for manufacturing.
@@IdleByte thank you so much! Would you be willing to share settings? Thank you again for the information!
@@lifeviasoul The defaults are good if you go with polymaker. It's almost PLA easy. Just increase temp or slow down speed to increase glass like finish, but bridging/retracting will be impacted. I use a CR10 and it doesn't struggle at all.
@@IdleByte thank you!!!
That's a clean model. Good video, too. Props, good Sir
Hey, great work! I stumbled across wanting to learn more about casting with the possibility of 3d printing. Very informative and love your passion and enthusiasm.
Amazing work Robert, I started modeling and figuring this all out a couple years ago. Awesome to see you evolve your processes using a 3d printer and sharing your experiences !
Just stumbled apon your channel. Ive noticed your attention to detail and enjoyed your process but one thing id add to improve the process a lil bit is when ya drill holes or have holes it always looks nicer and fits better with a CHAMFER on the hole... im machinst and to see burs or to have them is a pet pieve of mine. Since its plastic not much of a worry but any type of metal and expect to be putting on some bandages throughout the day!
Some relief cuts in the center of the molds would allow a slight bend without compromising your molds. But they will pop out with a simple bend
Draft release angles make a huge difference, I made production parts using a form 3 printer and resin casting with mine, apply similar principles for this as you do for injection mould designs.
Another interesting video. A couple of weeks ago I did something similar but created moulds to mould silicone rubber buttons for a nelsonic game watch. The main issue I had there was I had to paint the mould because the light cure resin prevents platinum cure silicone from curing.
Platinum rubber is notorious for cure sensitivity.
@@RobertTolone yeah. So I found out. Just a light paint coat was enough though. Any idea whether there are good waxes that you can use to apply a thin film to the surface of a resin 3D print without pooling in corners?
Rob! Love your videos! You tell it like it is in this casting world! Like you say it's to make you happy!
Welcome to the world PullBot!
Luv your show!
I have to say i am immensly impressed by this Video and yourself sir.
As soon as i heard that you modelled it up yourself in blender i subbed! Its amazing and an Inspiration. My Blender experience was very humbling as it is not very easy to understand i think. Keep it up
I have struggled to learn Blender but I’m finally getting comfortable with the modeling part. Animation, procedurals, nodes, Uvs, etc I haven’t even started on yet.
You can get printing resin that isn't so brittle, or even mix in stone flexible resin like Siraya Tech Tenacious.
Yes, I want to get a bunch of different resins. If I’m lucky maybe Siraya will donate some to the channel!
I was gonna try this but I would have to clean the mould if Im using an fdm printer. And as for the mould not locking all the way, you would need to do the other side of the registration keys scaled up .2mm so it locks properly.
Instead of keys, you could use screw inserts and tighten it with a wing nut.
I love the Asaro head as focus dummy at the end!
I was his student when he designed that head. I bought it from him. It was a pre-production test casting and the ears didn’t cast correctly so it is flawed. John didn’t want to sell it to me but I insisted. It’s been in my studio ever since.
@@RobertTolone No way! That's so cool!
Hey man, thanks for making awesome videos. I just found your channel and boy, I love finding people passionate about what they make!
I just baked a print the other day and got that wood grain pattern as well. The interesting thing was I only got it on one of 5 identical prints. And I think the only difference was I may have post cured that one for less time than the other 4.
Didn’t consider that. I was pressed for time and did not post-cure the head mold as long as I did the other ones.
love the work and your explanation of the PullBot
Awesome video! You're a cool cat, Robert
Really cool project. Enjoyed your video. Looking forward to watching more of your content.
The alignment pins ran into a common problem with 3D printing, the surface printed is slightly proud or shy of ideal. So shapes that in theory fit exactly are tight or loose. If the project is worth the effort the model can be dialed in for an exact fit.
I recently start to do it too. I use FDM 3d printer and tried printing the mold with it, which I had a terrible time removing the resin from the mould. After the faliure I made the object using the fdm and made a silicone mold for it, and then casted in resin, which works much better.
FDM just doesn't have the fidelity--the layer lines are too large, which leave marks that need sanded, and it's kinda porous, so the resin seeps in and you get...exactly what you got. Dunno if waxing the hell out of it and maybe tumbling the mold with pins to "sand" it would help...
@@gpweaver I use some primer to cover the model and sand it afterwards. And yes, I can see the lines on my models sometimes. I did not mean print a mould using FDM 3D printer though. I have tried that before, and the resins just soak into the holes between the lines, and some fast resins melts the PLA I'm using. What I mean was use FDM to create the replicate of the acutal cast object, then make a silicone mould for it, then cast it with epoxy resin.
@@DanteEhome Yeah, that would work just fine.
And now there's low melting temp FDM filament for doing lost-PLA metalcasting, which is cool as hell.
@@gpweaver Oh yeah ,I had heard of FDM filament that melts in water too. Will be interesting to play with them.